NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 29th September 2003
MORE DEATHS OF OLDER PEOPLE PREDICTED
IF NURSING CARE UNDER-FUNDING NOT ADDRESSED -
RNHA REACTION TO ROYAL COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS ON PERSONAL CARE
The Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA) today welcomed in principle the latest set of recommendations of the members of the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care, who have called on the Government to fund personal as well as nursing care.
But the RNHA warned the Government against any assumption that finding the estimated £1.1 billion per annum it would cost to meet personal care costs would somehow make everything in the long-term care garden rosy.
Estimates by the RNHA suggest that adequate funding of nursing care would require an additional £1 billion to £1.5 billion per annum.
In total, it believes the Government needs to spend about £2.5 billion a year extra on meeting the long-term nursing and personal care costs of vulnerable older people and adults with mental health problems and physical and learning disabilities.
Said RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell: “We applaud the commissioners for highlighting how unfair and, indeed, how unrealistic it is to try to separate out individuals’ needs for nursing care or personal care. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that nursing care itself is massively under-funded.”
He added: “The amounts paid by social services departments for publicly funded patients in nursing homes have lagged behind cost inflation over recent years, contributing to a mounting shortfall. Moreover, independent experts calculate that the payments received by most nursing home care providers fall below their actual costs by between £50 and £100 a week. That gap needs to be bridged as soon as possible if the long-term care sector is to survive.”
The RNHA warns that the consequences of further Government inaction will be more NHS beds blocked, more nursing home closures and more ‘high profile’ cases of older people dying when they have to be transferred out of homes which are closing.
END
For further information, please contact: Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, RNHA
(Tel: 0121-454 2511 or mobile 07785 227000)
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